WEF last word:'All investors have their sights trained on Africa'

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& Guardian Africa’s Lee Mwiti caught up with Nthabiseng Dube, the director
of government relations in Southern Africa for transnational and
automation group ABB on doing business in Africa’s critical energy sector.

M&G Africa: How long has ABB been operating in Africa?

Nthabiseng
Dube: The Africa business has been there for some time, we are not new in
Africa though in some instances due to certain environmental and political
issues we have sometimes downscaled the business, and upscaled when conditions
become amiable and warmer to business.

M&G Africa: In the kind of line of business you are in, and in a
continent where power and demand are buzzwords, is it prudent to downscale, as you have done in some of
your operations such as Zimbabwe?

ND: That is true
but sometimes you find as business you need to balance risk, if the political
environment is not conducive for business you are bound to weigh the risk and
ask yourself, how do I support this market? Do I support it from outside, or do
I have a representational office?

M&G Africa: In which areas are you seeing most growth?

ND: It depends on
the country and what drives its economy. A greater percentage of our revenue
comes from the power sector.
In South Africa the mining sector has been a good
business, though if miners are not spending money on their capex then it goes
down, and goes up when they need to upgrade their equipment or plant.

M&G Africa: Where do you see new opportunities in the continent?

ND: Africa is the
focal point right now for the group. I think the power sector will grow over
time, if you look at cross-border power infrastructure projects, and now there
are renewables.

M&G Africa: I notice you also do robotics, is there a market for those in
Africa?

ND: There is a
market for robots in the automotive industry. Robotics is not a huge business
globally for us. It forms a small percentage of what we do, but it is a
strategic business for us. In Africa we hope it will grow, we cannot exit
because it has meaningful input in what the group is doing. Robots play a role
in industries where safety is a concern such as mining and smelting, or where
there is a need for precision such as in the diamond industry.

M&G Africa: What can be done to increase access to power in Africa?

ND: There are lots
of things that can be done. There’s been lots of talk about renewables for
example. There’s a lot of room for governments
and technology owners to have conversations about partnerships on rolling
out infrastructure to increase access.

M&G Africa: Is there a trend towards renewables?

ND: I think it’s a
mixed bag. There’s renewables, and we see fossils still being used, as the
continent has lots of resources, so what we need to do is explore cleaner
energy technologies to exploit that and reduce our carbon emissions.

We’re
headed there, we are still trying to understand what the mix looks like, but
the will is there.

M&G
Africa: There is this campaign in the West for investors
to divest themselves from fossil fuels, will it have an impact on ABB?

ND: I don’t think that is going to happen overnight, it will be gradual.
But while we still have the fossil deposits, I think it is worth looking at
cleaner technologies in terms of utilising them. This will be the answer for
some time, as renewables grow. ABB is a supplier, we cannot move things to
another level on our own; we need to have partnerships with others.

M&G
Africa: Is ABB hoping to tap the Power Africa plan?

ND: Once it starts rolling out, yes, ABB will
support the renewable space that the plan is anchored in.

M&G
Africa: What challenges have you come across while
operating on the continent?

ND: They are not unique challenges, in term of issues of skills to execute
certain projects, or issues of the non-conducive business environment such as
restrictive regulations; it’s a mixed bag as the Ease of Doing Business index
shows. Financing is also a concern: for us to participate in a project there
needs to be funders, and also the safety environment has to be right for our
workers. We take that very seriously.

M&G
Africa: Where do you see Africa’s power situation in the next 10 years?

ND: I think there has been a lot of inroads as far
as the energy sector is concerned on the continent. There is still a lot that
can be done, and it can definitely grow beyond this and the momentum will
increase, as everyone focuses on Africa being the next growth area for
business.

ABB remains keen on growing our business in
Africa, and we take pride in having been on the continent for a long time, and
growing our efforts to do business here.